Looking for an alternative to traditional payday loans online from direct lender? WERTH: So, what Fusaro did was he set up a randomized control trial where he gave one group of borrowers a traditional high-interest-rate payday loan and then he gave another group of borrowers no interest rate on their loans and then he compared the two and he found out that both groups were just as likely to roll over their loans again.

There are no current proposals to amend Michigan law which allows payday lenders to charge annualized interest rates of up to 391 percent for loans of up to 31 days without protections against a cycle of loans when people can't pay off the original debt.

In a profitability analysis by Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law, it was determined that the average profit margin from seven publicly traded payday lending companies (including pawn shops) in the U.S. was 7.63%, and for pure payday lenders it was 3.57%.

Short term lenders may also rely on their own scoring criteria, which is generally based on income and ability to repay, as well as the borrower's payment history of any previous payday loans that have been made with the lender in question, or with other payday lenders.

Consumers take on one payday loan then another and another when they are short covering expenses during subsequent months because they are paying off the first loan, said Mia Cupp, chief development and communications officer for Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency.